


Mother To Mother

by Leni



Series: First Meetings [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Background Rumbelle, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-10
Updated: 2017-02-10
Packaged: 2018-09-23 07:48:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9646913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: The only fitting description for the Gold's backyard was of a toddler's paradise."You know you'll never get away from hosting a big birthday party every year, right?"





	

The only fitting description for the Gold's backyard was of a toddler's paradise. The sprawling jungle gym alone would have been the dream of any kindergarten class, along with the wooden fort peeking from the copse of a sturdy oak and the slide under its shade.

Gideon Gold was the luckiest boy in Storybrooke.

"You know you'll never get away from hosting a big birthday party every year, right?" Emma told Belle one afternoon at the beginning of spring, when it was finally warm enough to bring the boys outside.

At the moment it was only Gideon slipping in and out of the plastic tunnels, glancing with hope at the ladders and nets but obediently keeping himself at ground level. Meanwhile Henry slept on, happy to doze in his pram while his uncle did the exploring. It would only be a couple years until Henry was old enough to join the adventure, and Emma knew the time would fly by just as the last two months had. Henry would soon be a healthy boy, asking for permission to climb and pouting dejectedly when denied. By then Gideon would have friends his age at pre-school, and it wasn't hard to imagine a couple dozen of four-year-olds running around.

After three weeks as the newest resident in Storybrooke, the sheer number of little kids had astounded her. Once they found this private playground, there would be no keeping them away.

"Oh yeah, you won't need to even promise them a show to keep them interested," Emma said, chuckling. "There will always be a line of children at the door every day after school, hoping to be invited."

Sitting at her side on one of the broad benches supplied for supervising adults, Belle gave a little wistful smile. "It's unlikely any kid will resist the lure of an invitation, isn't it?" Then added in a somber tone. "No matter what their parents say."

That hadn't been the first sign that the Golds weren't the most beloved citizens in town, but it was the first time it struck Emma that people's opinion might spread onto the children.

"They don't really hate Gold that much, do they?" Belle raised an eyebrow in silent reproach, but Emma shrugged. "I know. I'm family; I should call him by his first name. But I just can't do that with a straight face. He doesn't look like an 'Aaron' at all!"

Belle considered that, and Emma started to worry she might have given offense, but then Belle started giggling. "It's the suits," she confided. "He's always so formal while he's wearing them."

Emma refused to ask the man's wife whether his attitude shifted when he wasn't. "It doesn't help that no one else seems aware that he can be called in any other way," she said instead, thinking of the aghast reactions she had gathered in her first week in Storybrooke, when she'd explained where she was staying. The inn owner had even offered a hefty discount for when she realized her mistake and fled the Victorian house. No one had even considered that Emma might feel sincerely welcome for the first time in years, or that she had enough experience to know the difference. "Imagine if I used Gold's name in public. I'm afraid I'd break someone's brain!"

Belle's eyes widened with mute laughter. "I've never had that problem," she said, amused.

Emma shook her head. "You married the man. They already know you're unhinged." The expression on Belle's face made her wish she could backpedal. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean... Hit too close home, didn't I?"

"People can be cruel," Belle said, letting out a long sigh. "When it came out that Aaron and I were seeing each other, there were several suggestions that I should return to therapy or maybe even get committed. Because _obviously_ I wasn't yet over the grief of my mother's death."

Emma gaped.

"They didn't care that he was desperate for news of his son, or that he blamed himself for Bae's disappearance," Belle continued. "He was still in a dark place when we met. In fact, he had just walked away with my father's van that morning. The first time we talked, I was yelling at him for not waiting until the shipment of roses had been unloaded off the van. My father runs the flower shop; it was Valentine's Day. Can you imagine?"

"Sounds romantic."

Belle gave a little laugh. "God, it was anything but. At one point I threatened to destroy his shop, item by item, see how he liked it when his livelihood circled down the drain. He yelled back that he would have me thrown into a dungeon and lose the key if I so much as touched anything."

Emma had seen enough of the two of them to know where the story was going. They made a cute couple, always sure to be caught kissing and holding hands in the privacy of their home. But when their tempers were riled...

"You totally touched something."

"An antique tea set he'd put out on the counter for cleaning." Belle buried her face in her hands for a moment. "I only meant to make a point, prove his word wasn't law and that he could be defied, but then he startled me and..."

"Let me guess. That's why there's a tea set with a chipped cup in the cabinet." Emma smiled. "I was right. This _is_ a romantic story."

"I'm glad someone thinks so. Everyone else caught wind of the argument. Once they heard we were dating, people decided that either Aaron was taking advantage of me or I was too broken to make a good choice, or both."

Emma cringed at the thought.

Raised in several homes across suburban neighborhoods where she'd never even had the chance to meet the people in the block before she was moved away, Emma had always thought of town life as an idyllic place with plenty of caring neighbors to look out for each other. It had been one of the factors that led her to accept Gold's proposal to move to Storybrooke after her unforeseen early release.

Since her arrival, people had been nosy, but everyone seemed too busy falling in love with Neal's child to pay much attention to his mother except to warn her about the heartless Mr. Gold.

Emma decided she liked it that way.

What Belle had just described was the flipside of having people know too much of each other's private affairs. It sounded like a nightmare, and Emma was doubly incensed in the knowledge that Belle couldn't have deserved it.

"Bastards," she said with feeling. "I'm glad you didn't listen to them. Whatever gave them the right to judge!"

"That would have been my father," Belle told her, lips pulled into a bitter smile. "I'm sure Dr. Hopper would never have gossiped about our sessions."

Emma grimaced. "I'm sorry, but your father sounds awful."

Belle shrugged. "He insists he only had my welfare in mind. We try not to bring that up anymore, and I think he's truly happy for me now."

"Doesn't make him any less of a dick," Emma muttered.

Belle didn't seem to take offense at Emma's opinion. "Often forgiveness is the easiest route to take," she told Emma, then looked at her searchingly. "Maybe one day you'll find that out as well."

Unsaid went the last report from the team of investigators Gold had hired to find his son. If they were truly on the right track, Baelfire - or Neal, as Emma had known him during the months they lived together - might be returning home in the near future.

Forgiveness was the last thing on Emma's mind when she considered coming face to face with her child's father again.

Pursing her lips at the unwelcome thought, she looked away from Belle's hopeful expression. "Doubtful," she said curtly.

Belle didn't press. "Anyway. I'm telling you because sooner or later someone will question you about bringing your son to live with the monster of Storybrooke and his deranged wife."

Emma glanced back. "Seriously? Wow. They _do_ hate Gold."

"They have long memories." Belle seemed to deliberate on what to say next, then let out a little sigh and checked quickly on Gideon to make sure he was out of hearing range. "The truth is, even Aaron will tell you he deserves their hate. It's foolish, of course. Everything happened years ago, and it's not as if he did anything illegal or that he enforced any clause the other party hadn't signed on their own will."

Emma smiled knowingly. "He fucked over the lot of them, didn't he?"

"With a song in his heart," Belle confirmed. "Well, for some years at least. As he tells the story, in the beginning he was just trying to prove he could succeed outside his father's shadow; but eventually he lost sight of everything but the power of his position. It got to the point where there was only one person who kept pushing him to change his ways."

"Neal."

Belle nodded. "Baelfire believed his father could afford some leniency, that it wasn't necessary to hold the whole town in terror in order to turn up a profit. Aaron refused to regret his tactics or consider Bae's idea."

"And the idiot ran away." Emma snorted. "What a surprise."

Belle eyed her, obviously regretting the turn of their conversation. "He must have thought there was a good reason for it."

"Sure there was," Emma agreed, her eyes narrowing. "His daddy was too mean; his girlfriend was too clingy. Better to vanish into thin air and hell with consequences."

"Emma..."

"Look, it's okay. You don't have to defend him. I've already got the whole town telling me what a terrific boy he was; how sweet and polite and nothing at all like his father." Emma rolled her eyes. "And you know what? That's fine. I'm sure Neal didn't mean for me to get thrown in jail. That was me being stupid. And sure as hell I can't blame him for abandoning Henry when I had no idea I was pregnant. But like I said, consequences happened. And Neal? Nowhere close to deal with them."

Belle sighed. "Can I ask you not to talk like this in front of Aaron?"

"Too late."

On their first phone call, Emma had made sure to inform him that Neal - or whatever his real name was - was an undependable shit, and why should she put herself and an unborn kid into the hands of the man who had raised him?

She remembered his answer word by word: _Because I'm also the man who won't give up until I've found my son and we can be a family again._

Emma had always prided herself of her instinct when it came to detecting lies. When Gold said he valued family above all else, he meant it. Once she was certain of that, her other choices had come more easily.

She had yet to regret accepting his offer.

"Gold is okay," she told Belle, and the older woman nodded in wholehearted agreement, "a little rough around the edges, but his heart is in the right place. That's what matters."

Belle was staring at her with a wide smile. "I'm glad you came to us, Emma."

Physical shows of affection had never been high in Emma's personal list of preferences, but the soft pat of her arm seemed innocuous enough.

"Yeah, well," she said, only a little uncomfortable and not enough to grab Henry and return to the house. "You're not too bad either."

 

The End

10/02/17

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love!
> 
> *points at comment box*


End file.
